After a gorgeous, warm, extended fall and the most mild winter I can ever remember experiencing in my lifetime we got some snow. Bismarck didn't get a whole lot (maybe a few inches blown around into drifts here and there) but there was quite a bit that fell all around the state. Unfortunately, the snow and wind is supposed to come raring back again this week and it's not going to be pretty. Looking at the big picture, the weather is still not that bad or that big of a deal except when the one and only time this whole freaking winter that I was going to be going anywhere that required major, multi-city travel is the week that we have winter storm warnings and blizzard watches lasting 3 days (past the estimated day of departure). Now it's time to scrammble because we leave tomorrow instead of Wednesday.
I know, I know, it's terrible that I have to spend an extra day in sunny Mexico and away from work. Believer me, I am NOT complaining about that. What I am freaking out about right now is that poor Jake has to work tomorrow (the only day he has to work while I'm gone) and now has to go in an hour later than normal so that he can take the kids to daycare because I leave way before they can go and because he now has another day of single parenting to handle. I haven't packed yet and the box with my bathing suits is still in storage somewhere, Cayden has swimming lessons tonight and I have a hair appointment to get rid of the gross orange color my hair turned after I got it colored a week ago and I can't leave work early today because I have a meeting from 4-5. That leaves me a small, less than 2 hour window of opportunity to find my box of clothes in the storage unit, get all of my laundry finished, and get completely packed and ready to be picked up at 10 after 6 tomorrow morning. Yes, I am FREAKING OUT!
So here's to my wonderful (all expenses paid, by the way) trip to Mexico with my Mom, my AMAZING husband for staying home with the kids (yeah, I owe him BIG) so I can go and relax and to the winter storm that's supposed to blow through here this week that's putting me into such a panic that I need a vacation.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
SUCCESS!!!
I know that everyone has been waiting on pins and needles to hear how my weekend of dedicated, no-giving-in potty training went. I hope that by the title of this post, you have figured it out...WE WERE VERY SUCCESSFULL AND HAVE AN ALMOST COMPLETELY POTTY TRAINED 3YR OLD!!! Of course the weekend did not go without a few crying, melt-downs about wanting a dry pull-up (or one to poop in), one peeing on the basement floor incident and a few accidents (all of which happened while he was on his way to the bathroom, go Monkey) but in the end, he did it and did it so well without needing a bribe. He even refused to put on a pull-up at bed time the last three nights, told me he didn't want a pull-up on when he woke up to find that Mommy had snuck one on him at some point during the night and this morning he woke up completely dry.
We also discovered that apparently his picky-ness about what he wants to wear also apply to underwear because he absolutely refused to wear anything but boxer shorts. What did he do, you ask, when his all three of his boxers were wet and in the laundry? He opted to go commando under his pants (sweat pants, obviously). I guess my big boy would rather go naked than wear briefs.
After two full days of success, I even got the crazy idea to take my newly potty trained son out on the town for a while to really test our progress. Trying to be prepared I loaded up the diapter bag with all the spare (and newly clean) pairs of boxers, extra pants and treats for a reward should he not pee in the car and off we went. For over 2 hours we were in the car, at the chiropractor and at Scheels and he never had an accident. He also refused to use any of the public bathrooms I took him in to to try, but I guess I can't blame him for that one.
In addition to all of the potty training craziness, that usually involve Mommy running to wherever Cayden was and then high-tailing it into the bathroom, Harper decided that she was going to work on cutting her second tooth (which is almost up) and start trying to walk along the couch. She managed to take one-two steps each time before falling down but she was doing it and was so proud of herself too. I guess all she needs for motivation is for Cayden to pile his blankets, pillows, stuffed animals and toys on the couch for her to try and go after.
Here is our weekend in review:
We also discovered that apparently his picky-ness about what he wants to wear also apply to underwear because he absolutely refused to wear anything but boxer shorts. What did he do, you ask, when his all three of his boxers were wet and in the laundry? He opted to go commando under his pants (sweat pants, obviously). I guess my big boy would rather go naked than wear briefs.
After two full days of success, I even got the crazy idea to take my newly potty trained son out on the town for a while to really test our progress. Trying to be prepared I loaded up the diapter bag with all the spare (and newly clean) pairs of boxers, extra pants and treats for a reward should he not pee in the car and off we went. For over 2 hours we were in the car, at the chiropractor and at Scheels and he never had an accident. He also refused to use any of the public bathrooms I took him in to to try, but I guess I can't blame him for that one.
In addition to all of the potty training craziness, that usually involve Mommy running to wherever Cayden was and then high-tailing it into the bathroom, Harper decided that she was going to work on cutting her second tooth (which is almost up) and start trying to walk along the couch. She managed to take one-two steps each time before falling down but she was doing it and was so proud of herself too. I guess all she needs for motivation is for Cayden to pile his blankets, pillows, stuffed animals and toys on the couch for her to try and go after.
Here is our weekend in review:
Friday, February 17, 2012
my love/hate relationship with the weekend
Working all week long usually makes me look forward to the weekend, whether we have nothing or lots planned. However, along with these two (sometimes three) glorious days away from work can also come a long couple of days with crabby kids, little sleep (remember the days when you were able to sleep past 7am?) and laundry and of course some weekends are better than others.
Last weekend was actually fairly uneventful with Daddy working Saturday and Sunday and me home alone with the kids but we did a lot. We spent our time preparing for Valentine's day. I know it's a pretty minor holiday but it's the first one being settled into our house so I decided that I would make it a good one. I baked brownies for the kids to take to daycare for their party, I made red velvet cupcakes for work and I made some pretty awesome goody bags for the rest of the daycare kids (see the weekend in review collage for my favorite project). I also did a lot of cooking which made for some pretty awesome leftovers. I am afraid that this weekend will not be quite as fun since I have decided that we are going to really hit our potty training efforts hard. It will more than likely involve a lot of exhausting screaming, crying, hair pulling and temper tantrum throwing for both Mommy and Cayden but it needs to be done and I am not above using any form of bribery and/or trick I can think of to make it happen. Wish me luck!
Here is our last weekend in review:
What started off as an attempt to trim the front of Cayden's hair so it wasn't completely covering his eyes turned into a complete hair cut. Mommy did a darn fine job though.
The little boxes are the finished product to my favorite craft project from the weekend - little matchboxes covered with construction paper, decorated and filled with M&Ms. I may have to use this idea again.
Last weekend was actually fairly uneventful with Daddy working Saturday and Sunday and me home alone with the kids but we did a lot. We spent our time preparing for Valentine's day. I know it's a pretty minor holiday but it's the first one being settled into our house so I decided that I would make it a good one. I baked brownies for the kids to take to daycare for their party, I made red velvet cupcakes for work and I made some pretty awesome goody bags for the rest of the daycare kids (see the weekend in review collage for my favorite project). I also did a lot of cooking which made for some pretty awesome leftovers. I am afraid that this weekend will not be quite as fun since I have decided that we are going to really hit our potty training efforts hard. It will more than likely involve a lot of exhausting screaming, crying, hair pulling and temper tantrum throwing for both Mommy and Cayden but it needs to be done and I am not above using any form of bribery and/or trick I can think of to make it happen. Wish me luck!
Here is our last weekend in review:
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The little boxes are the finished product to my favorite craft project from the weekend - little matchboxes covered with construction paper, decorated and filled with M&Ms. I may have to use this idea again.
Harper...Miss Davis if you please
I was looking back on my blog posts so far and Cayden and his antics seem to be dominating most of what I am writing. Poor Harper. I am going to correct that now. Here is an update on Miss Davis:
My baby girl was 8 months old on February 10th and she continues to amaze me every day. She is crazy active and incredibly determined to go where she thinks she needs to be. She has been crawling for about 2 months now and for the last few weeks she has been pulling herself up on everything. Unfortunately, her amazing motor skills are developing to the horror of her big brother who does not want her anywhere near anything of his especially now that Harper views his room as the promised land. No matter where we set her down in the house, it is a guarantee that she will make a bee line for Cayden's room to see what she can find.
That whole determined attitude has definitely seeped over into her eating habits. She absolutely refuses to eat any form of pureed vegetable but continues to love fruit and cereal, preferably mixed together. We have also been giving her bits and pieces of our meals to try and I have discovered that teeth are completely unnecessary for eating almost anything. No food will be off limits to her now that she has finally started cutting teeth. Her first one finally broke through the gum earlier this week and the next one is visibly not far behind. We are working on getting her to drink out of a sippy cup too but all that seems to be doing is further irritating her brother because now she goes after his too.
I can already tell that the next few years are going to be very interesting with these two but I love watching them interact, no matter what they are doing. It's especially funny and amazing to watch Cayden talking to Harper trying to reason with her, teach her something or show her something. It is obvious that she love her brother too as she gets the biggest smile on her face when she sees him. Seeing how their relationship has formed in such a short amount of time has made me one proud mama!
My baby girl was 8 months old on February 10th and she continues to amaze me every day. She is crazy active and incredibly determined to go where she thinks she needs to be. She has been crawling for about 2 months now and for the last few weeks she has been pulling herself up on everything. Unfortunately, her amazing motor skills are developing to the horror of her big brother who does not want her anywhere near anything of his especially now that Harper views his room as the promised land. No matter where we set her down in the house, it is a guarantee that she will make a bee line for Cayden's room to see what she can find.
That whole determined attitude has definitely seeped over into her eating habits. She absolutely refuses to eat any form of pureed vegetable but continues to love fruit and cereal, preferably mixed together. We have also been giving her bits and pieces of our meals to try and I have discovered that teeth are completely unnecessary for eating almost anything. No food will be off limits to her now that she has finally started cutting teeth. Her first one finally broke through the gum earlier this week and the next one is visibly not far behind. We are working on getting her to drink out of a sippy cup too but all that seems to be doing is further irritating her brother because now she goes after his too.
I can already tell that the next few years are going to be very interesting with these two but I love watching them interact, no matter what they are doing. It's especially funny and amazing to watch Cayden talking to Harper trying to reason with her, teach her something or show her something. It is obvious that she love her brother too as she gets the biggest smile on her face when she sees him. Seeing how their relationship has formed in such a short amount of time has made me one proud mama!
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| Here is Harper with her big girl cup. She mostly just throws it around but she is getting the hang of drinking out of it. |
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| She is very determined to pull herself up on her activity table and it took all of two tries before she mastered it. She does, however, get mad if she forgets how to get herself down. |
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| Don't be fooled by the pile of carrots on her tray. She ate two bites before she decided that was it and hasn't touched them again. Nice try Mom! |
Friday, February 10, 2012
moms are telepathic
When you are pregnant, you read in books and have people (those uber-happy, gushy type of people) tell you that you will forever have a special bond with your child and that it began a long time ago, regardless of which point you first feel it. After having my two kids, I do completely agree that there is something totally special and unique between mother and child. However, there is also something else that comes along with that for both Mommy and baby...you develop a new, sixth sense.
Baby can, from the very beginning of life, realize that there is something other than them that has Mommy's attention. Even if it's just for a few short minutes, your kids will forever be able to tell that your attention is not 100% focused on them and that they need to immediately come up with some need of theirs (real or ridiculous) that absolutely must be met at that exact moment. Now, physical distance can weaken this sense slightly and being in a different setting (i.e. daycare) can temporarily distract your child so that they are vying for the attention of a different adult or other children so that your brain can spend it's 25% of non-mommy capacity on something else.
On the mommy side of things, you will now be able to read your child's mind and understand everything they say and do without them giving you any type of explanation whatsoever. Until your child can speak clear enough for the whole world to understand them, or speak at all, you will become their interpreter. You will read their mind and will quickly learn what a particular squeak, squeal, cry, grunt, etc. means and relay that information to the rest of the world. You will also be forced to interpret their own language when they start referring to things by a name that makes no sense to anyone other than you and your child. For example, earlier this week Cayden was panicking because he could not find his "water car." I have never heard him refer to any of his cars by this name not to mention the fact that he has about a million cars that I am now forced to mentally wade through in order to try and find the correct car. As I am looking at his pathetic, sad face as he is telling me about his "water car" I suddenly know exactly which one I am looking for and miraculously locate it under his kitchen. Mommy is the hero and I have now realized the full power of my mommy telepathy. I can safely say that Mommy's are not just heroes, they are superheros with super-Mommy-powers.
And since I didn't get to this earlier in the week, here is last weekend in review:
We had a weekend filled with friends and fun that started with Ruby coming over for a while on Saturday, ended with the Gartner family coming over for a low-key, kid-friendly superbowl party and had Cayden trying to bury Daddy with toys in between.
Baby can, from the very beginning of life, realize that there is something other than them that has Mommy's attention. Even if it's just for a few short minutes, your kids will forever be able to tell that your attention is not 100% focused on them and that they need to immediately come up with some need of theirs (real or ridiculous) that absolutely must be met at that exact moment. Now, physical distance can weaken this sense slightly and being in a different setting (i.e. daycare) can temporarily distract your child so that they are vying for the attention of a different adult or other children so that your brain can spend it's 25% of non-mommy capacity on something else.
On the mommy side of things, you will now be able to read your child's mind and understand everything they say and do without them giving you any type of explanation whatsoever. Until your child can speak clear enough for the whole world to understand them, or speak at all, you will become their interpreter. You will read their mind and will quickly learn what a particular squeak, squeal, cry, grunt, etc. means and relay that information to the rest of the world. You will also be forced to interpret their own language when they start referring to things by a name that makes no sense to anyone other than you and your child. For example, earlier this week Cayden was panicking because he could not find his "water car." I have never heard him refer to any of his cars by this name not to mention the fact that he has about a million cars that I am now forced to mentally wade through in order to try and find the correct car. As I am looking at his pathetic, sad face as he is telling me about his "water car" I suddenly know exactly which one I am looking for and miraculously locate it under his kitchen. Mommy is the hero and I have now realized the full power of my mommy telepathy. I can safely say that Mommy's are not just heroes, they are superheros with super-Mommy-powers.
And since I didn't get to this earlier in the week, here is last weekend in review:
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Monday, February 6, 2012
date night with my little man
Friday night, Cayden and Mommy had date night. We went to go see Disney on Ice and I honestly don't know who was more excited about it, Mommy or Cayden. He was really excited to get to see Mickey and Goofy and the gang and I couldn't wait to see his reaction to the show. As we were driving to the civic center and I was telling him all about how glad I was that he wanted to go somewhere special with me and what all we were going to see, he stopped to ask me "where's Harper?" I didn't know if he was thinking that she should be coming along or if he just hasn't been alone in the vehicle without her for so long but either way, he made me smile and he seemed fine with my answer that she was too little and that it was just a night for Cayden and Mommy to have time together.
Anyone who has taken their child/children to the circus, a show, anywhere really, knows that there are always bright, expensive souvenirs strategically placed right near your seat. As a result of this clever marketing, Cayden went home with a light up spinning thing (really not sure how else to describe it), a character cup of Stitch with a few remnants of the snow cone that was in it and a tummy full of popcorn. However, seeing his face light up when he first saw each of the characters come out and watching his concentration during the whole thing was amazing and I can't think of a better way to have spent my Friday night.
Anyone who has taken their child/children to the circus, a show, anywhere really, knows that there are always bright, expensive souvenirs strategically placed right near your seat. As a result of this clever marketing, Cayden went home with a light up spinning thing (really not sure how else to describe it), a character cup of Stitch with a few remnants of the snow cone that was in it and a tummy full of popcorn. However, seeing his face light up when he first saw each of the characters come out and watching his concentration during the whole thing was amazing and I can't think of a better way to have spent my Friday night.
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| Greetings from Disney on Ice! |
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| a glimpse of the light-up spinning thing |
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| enjoying his popcorn |
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| his concentrated facial expression during the show |
Friday, February 3, 2012
one month in
When I started this blog, I talked about my New Year's resolutions. One month in, it's time for a status check. First, the blog itself. I am keeping up and am really enjoying writing about all the craziness in Woinarowiczland. Although to us it seems that some of the crazy has died down because we are getting good and settled into our house and into our routine, most people would still say that our life is surrounded by crazy. Is it bad that my normal is most people's crazy?
My second, and biggest, resolution was to let go of some of my Mommy guilt and I feel like I have done pretty good. It will never completely go away, because let's face it I am human and Mommy guilt is always riding shotgun, but I am not hanging on to it or letting it override all of my other feelings like it was before. The kids love going to daycare and I love that they are getting that time where they have to listen to an adult other than Mom and Dad in addition to getting to play and interact with other kids. Harper is by far the youngest kid at daycare but she is all but attacked when we come in because everyone is so excited to see her. It will be interesting to see her personality really develop with as much time as she spends being the center of attention. Cayden is loving swimming lessons and we haven't had another meltdown when it comes time to go home. I am really liking my job now that I kind of know what I'm doing and knowing that the kids love daycare makes me feel less guilty about leaving them there. Cayden is not potty trained yet but I am still hopeful that he will decide one day soon that he doesn't want to wear pull-ups any more and that the toilet is not scary. We have had to wait for him to make decisions on his own with pretty much every other milestone in his life so why should this be any different. He's not about to let anyone force him to do anything and this independence, although incredibly frustrating at times, is one of the things that I think is so incredibly amazing about him. Letting go of some of this guilt has also helped me loose some of that baby weight I mentioned before too. Ok, maybe not really but I am am going to let myself think so. Only a few more lbs to go and I may fit into my summer clothes in time for vacation.
So, one month in...not doing so bad on the resolutions. Only 11 more months to go.
My second, and biggest, resolution was to let go of some of my Mommy guilt and I feel like I have done pretty good. It will never completely go away, because let's face it I am human and Mommy guilt is always riding shotgun, but I am not hanging on to it or letting it override all of my other feelings like it was before. The kids love going to daycare and I love that they are getting that time where they have to listen to an adult other than Mom and Dad in addition to getting to play and interact with other kids. Harper is by far the youngest kid at daycare but she is all but attacked when we come in because everyone is so excited to see her. It will be interesting to see her personality really develop with as much time as she spends being the center of attention. Cayden is loving swimming lessons and we haven't had another meltdown when it comes time to go home. I am really liking my job now that I kind of know what I'm doing and knowing that the kids love daycare makes me feel less guilty about leaving them there. Cayden is not potty trained yet but I am still hopeful that he will decide one day soon that he doesn't want to wear pull-ups any more and that the toilet is not scary. We have had to wait for him to make decisions on his own with pretty much every other milestone in his life so why should this be any different. He's not about to let anyone force him to do anything and this independence, although incredibly frustrating at times, is one of the things that I think is so incredibly amazing about him. Letting go of some of this guilt has also helped me loose some of that baby weight I mentioned before too. Ok, maybe not really but I am am going to let myself think so. Only a few more lbs to go and I may fit into my summer clothes in time for vacation.
So, one month in...not doing so bad on the resolutions. Only 11 more months to go.
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| Cayden has really wanted to cuddle lately. I am not complaining but J has had to sleep on the couch once or twice. |
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| baby girl with her big girl cup...we're trying but mostly she just chews on the top and then throws the cup around. |
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